Affinity:Chaos

At the entrance of the building.

Grey who was accompanied by Void was staring at the fading shadows of his friends. After they all came out of their seclusion, they each saw an increase in strength, naturally, they'll continue exploring the trial land. Even though the chances of finding something at the level of the Great Earth Essence Liquid, there were still other things to be found.

Just like they did previously, they were all separating once again, only, this time, Grey had a companion.

'So, where are we headed now?' Void who was perched on Grey's shoulder asked with excitement visible in his expression.

"Hmm, let's see." Grey took out the map he acquired from Quinn's bag and studied it.

Although this wasn't a complete map of the trial land, the parts on it were well detailed, there were even some landmarks Grey recalled seeing, it was amazing. Even the places they passed through when they entered the trial land were shown on the map. He couldn't help but feel somewhat apprehensive of Quinn's background. For him to have such a vivid map, and being the one who discovered the black door, not just that but from the map, it felt like that was their goal of entering the trial land. This meant that they had been searching for this place for years now, and since the trial land only opens up once every one hundred years, one can only imagine how long it took them to create this map.

In the end, Grey was the one who benefited from their hard work. Even though he was a little fearful of Quinn's background, he's dead now, and there's no way people would know he was the one who killed him, so, he threw that to the back of his mind.

While he was going through the map, a place suddenly caught his attention.

'The garden is close to this place, once I get here, I should have no problem locating it.' Grey thought while staring at the familiar-looking landscape.

The place he was planning to go to was none other than the garden where he was attacked, and then chased by bunnies!

"We'll be heading to a garden, there are a lot of fruits there." Grey said showing Void their destination on the map.

'Oh! You've been there before?' Void asked.

"Yeah, about two months ago." Grey replied.

'Wouldn't others have cleaned it up by now?' Void asked.

It's been so long, so there's a chance others have found it just the way Grey found it.

"Had it been any other garden, I wouldn't have wanted to return but given what is protecting it, I don't think anyone else would be able to clean it up. Besides, there's somewhere close to it, so even if we don't find anything there, it's not that bad." Grey said.

He found a place on the map which was marked with a book. So there was a chance it might be a library, even if it isn't a library, it should definitely be related to books. Since he was quite curious about this place so he wanted to check it out.

'Okay.' Void nodded and they soon went on their way.

Bang!

"*Sigh* So weak. Staying on this side of the trial land wouldn't help me improve in any way." Grey said while looking at the wild bull lying on the ground.

The bull was in the Ninth stage of the Arcane Plane, had it been one and a half month ago, then this would have excited him, but now, it's not even worth speaking about. This was the eighth beast he had encountered since leaving the building, but none of them were in the Origin Plane.

"Hey, Void! I've never seen you fight before, why don't you take out the next beast?" Grey looked at Void who was lazily looking at the dead bull.

'Not a chance, they're not worth me making a move.' Void refused before praising himself.

"Hmm, haven't you reached rank four?" Grey inquired.

'I have.' Void nodded.

"Okay, so, you'll be dealing with the next beast." Grey said pointing ahead of them.

A beast could be seen coming in their direction, it was a Ninth stage Arcane Plane Two-Tailed Fox. Each tail had different colors, red and green respectively which represented the fire and wind element. This type of fox is quite rare outside, but it's still found in some places, there were reports of it being seen in the Magical Beast Forest.

'Fine.' Void replied grumpily and disappeared.

The next moment.

Boom!

A deep red fire exploded out on the place where the Two-Tailed Fox was previously standing. The fox didn't even react before it was blasted to pieces.

"Wow!" Grey exclaimed on seeing the strength of Void's attack.

'The strength of that attack could easily rival an attack of a Third stage Origin Plane Elementalist, it might even be stronger. Also, how can something like this be defended against.' Grey was speechless.

Void's attack appeared out of nowhere, not just that, but it appeared directly above the fox. How can that be defended against? The more Grey saw the prowess of the space element, the more he wanted to awaken his own sooner.

'Happy now?' Void appeared in his previous position once again.

Grey nodded but didn't speak a word.

"Attack me." He suddenly said after keeping quiet for some time.

'Huh!' Void was stunned by Grey's odd request.

"Attack me, I want to check out something." Grey said seriously.

'Okay, should I use my full strength, or…?' Void asked still slightly

"Full strength." Grey's expression turned serious.

'I should warn you though, my attack power is stronger than what you just witnessed.' Void warned.

"I know." Grey responded.

'Okay, if you say so. But remember, if you get injured, this was your idea.' Void said.

Grey didn't answer and just prepared himself. He didn't want to speak too much, he was currently using his spiritual sense to the fullest. He wanted to see if he could sense Void's attack.

Seeing Grey's actions, Void knew he was prepared, so he also prepared himself and disappeared. Since Grey wanted to test out his strength so much, then he'll gladly entertain him. He still held a slight grudge over what Grey did previously, and had been looking for a way to get back at him, who knew he would ask for it himself?

Grey steadied himself while keeping his senses as sharp as possible.

"There."

Just as Grey turned around.

Bang!

Grey was sent flying and crashed into the ground.

"Shit! Do you plan on killing me?!" Grey yelled out.

'I warned you previously.' Void retorted immediately.

Grey stood up and thought about what just happened. He sensed a slight vibration in the air but it was too late.

'Had my spiritual sense been stronger, I would have been able to sense him quicker. I'll try it again. It's best I can sense it now while I haven't awakened my space element, that way if I were to chance upon a Space Elementalist, I wouldn't be caught unprepared.' Grey thought.

"Again!" Grey said after clearing his head.

'No.' Void declined.

It's not that he didn't want to beat Grey up, but if he accepted it so easily, then Grey would be able to figure his thoughts.

'I'll beat him up. Hmph! This will teach him not to put me in water again.' Void thought.

Bam!

Bang!

Boom!

In six minutes, Void had attacked Grey four times, and other than shouting out in pain, Grey hadn't been able to stop even a single attack. Had his physical body not been this strong, and had he not used earth armor, then, he would have been injured badly.

The only good thing was that he had managed to sense him quicker on the last attack, only, he was still sent flying.

After managing to stand up from the last attack, he decided to stop the training.

Just as he sat down, a thought came to him.

'I should try it one more time before stopping for today.' He thought.

But then, he remembered what happened the last time he said something like this.

'Nah, I'll just rest.' He quickly dismissed the thought.

He still clearly remembered what happened in the morning. At that time, his clothes were only dirtied, maybe this time, they'll be ruined. He didn't dare to take the chance.

'Are we stopping now?' Void asked when he saw Grey taking a seat.

"Yeah, we'll continue some other time." Grey waved tiredly.

'*Sigh* Well, I had my fun while it lasted.' Void sighed.

"What?" Grey asked.

'Nothing.' Void quickly shook his head and appeared close to Grey resting on his shoulder.

After resting for ten minutes, Grey felt revitalized.

"Okay, we should continue our journey." He stood up and started walking towards his destination.

The next day.

"We're here." Grey said looking at the still flourishing garden.

'I knew it would still be intact.'